Programs by month:

Programs and Tours

Special thanks to the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan for its support of communications and marketing strategies to promote collaborative programming at UMMA in 2009-2010.

November 2

Masterpieces Revealed: Ravel String Quartet in F

Monday, November 2, 7-8:30 pm
Commons

In the second installation of our Masterpieces Revealed Series, Andrew
Jennings will facilitate a group of student performers as they unlock
the secrets behind Maurice Ravel’s only string quartet. By exploring
one or two of the movements in detail, participants will come away
with a new appreciation of this masterwork. This event is presented
in conjunction with the St. Lawrence String Quartet’s mainstage
concert at Rackham Auditorium on November 8.

Guided Tour

The Lens of Impressionism
Wednesday, November 4, 12 pm

The Lens of Impressionism Teacher Workshop

Wednesday, November 4, 4-7:30 pm
Galleries and UMMA Multipurpose Room

Area teachers will experience UMMA’s historic exhibition The Lens of Impressionism: Photography and Painting Along the Normandy Coast, 1850–1874 with Senior Curator of Western Art Carole McNamara, discover the art and tourist culture in France at the end of the 19th century with Professor Michele Hannoosh of the UM Department of Romance Languages and Literature, and participate in hands-on photography and Impressionist activities. A light meal will be served and a teacher packet will be distributed. Registration required. Email Pam Reister at preister@umich.edu or Jann Wesolek at jannwes@umma.umich.edu for more information.

Lecture by Asia Society Museum Director Melissa Chiu

Contemporary Art in China:Where has it come from and where is it heading?
Wednesday November 4
6:30 pm Reception: Commons
7:30 pm Lecture: Helmut Stern Auditorium

Many assume that Chinese contemporary art emerged five years ago when the market was established through record-breaking auctions, but this belies a much longer history. Dr. Melissa Chiu’s lecture is designed to shed light on the early experimental developments in the Chinese art world through an analysis of the past three decades with specific attention on how these artists responded to local conditions while also keenly aware of their international audiences.

Dr. Melissa Chiu is Director of the Asia Society Museum in New York and Vice President of the Society's Global Arts Programming. She was appointed director in 2004 after serving for three years as the Museum's first curator of contemporary Asian and Asian American art. As a leading authority on Asian contemporary art, she has initiated a number of major initiatives at the Asia Society Museum, including the launch of a contemporary art collection to complement the museum's outstanding Rockefeller Collection of traditional Asian art. She earned her PhD in Art History and MA in Arts Administration in her native Australia.

This presentation is sponsored by the UM Center for Chinese Studies of the International Institute, the LSA Museum Theme Year, and the UM Museum of Art.

Zell Visiting Writers Series

Patricia Hampl’s most recent book is The Florist’s Daughter, winner of numerous “best” and “year end” awards, including the New York Times “100 Notable Books of the Year” and the 2008 Minnesota Book Award for Memoir and Creative Nonfiction. Blue Arabesque: A Search for the Sublime, published in 2006 and now in paperback, was also one of the Times Notable Books; a portion was chosen for The Best Spiritual Writing 2005. Patricia Hampl first won recognition for A Romantic Education, her memoir about her Czech heritage, awarded a Houghton Mifflin Literary Fellowship. This book and subsequent works have established her as an influential figure in the rise of autobiographical writing in the past 25 years. She is the author as well of two collections of poetry, Woman before an Aquarium, and Resort and Other Poems. And she has published Spillville, a meditation on Antonin Dvorak's 1893 summer in Iowa, with engravings by Steven Sorman.

This event is cosponsored by the Department of English and the Office of the Provost of the University of Michigan.

Screen Arts and Cultures

Lightworks
Thursday, November 5, 7 pm
Helmut Stern Auditorium

This program presents a curated selection from past “Lightworks” Festivals, the student-run festival which showcases Screen Arts and Cultures student production projects at the end of each academic term.

The Lens of Impressionism Program

Come and create your very own seascape painting inspired by paintings and photography from UMMA’s very special exhibition The Lens of Impressionism: Photography and Painting Along the Normandy Coast, 1850-1874. You’ll explore a variety of painting techniques to create the sea and sky and discover how the horizon line can create perspective to give your seascape the illusion of depth.

Presented with support from the University of Michigan Credit Union.

Concert

Debussy's Musique à moi
Saturday November 7, 8 pm
UMMA Apse

Claude Debussy's search for immediate, evocative sounds removed from musical tradition has much in common with that of the Impressionists, despite his known ambivalence about the label for himself. This wide-ranging program includes the celebrated early string quartet in G minor, op. 10 and Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune, as well as less familiar works, including Deux danses, juxtaposing Debussy's eastern and medieval influences; Cinq poèmes de Baudelaire, his most Wagnerian in style; and Trois poèmes de Mallarmé. The program features School of Music, Theatre, and Dance (SMTD) students with performance faculty Amy Porter, flute, and Caroline Helton, soprano, and alumni Amy Ley, harp, Jennifer Goltz, soprano, and Rachel Lauber, conductor.

Presented with support from the family of Dr. Raymond Cunningham in his memory, the Center for European Studies-European Union Center, and the UM School of Music, Theatre & Dance.

Zell Visiting Writers Series

Allan Gurganus, a North Carolina native, is the author of Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All (Sue Kaufman Prize from the American Academy), White People (Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Pen-Faulkner Finalist), Plays Well with Others, and The Practical Heart: Four Novellas (Lambda Literary Award). His stories have won the National Magazine Prize and the O’Henry Award. They are seen in Best American Stories and The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction. His political opinion pieces have frequently appeared in the New York Times and he is a popular commentator on PBS’ News Hour and NPRs All Things Considered. Gurganus has taught literature and fiction writing at Duke University, The Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Stanford University, and Sarah Lawrence College. Fellow writer John Cheever wrote, “I consider Allan Gurganus the most technically gifted and morally responsive writer of his generation.”

Cosponsored by the Department of English and the Office of the Provost of the University of Michigan.

Guided Tour

Curator Talk

Located at the intersection of sculpture, architecture, and installation, Heather Rowe's hybrid, fragmentary constructions derive their aesthetic frisson from their refusal to adhere to the norms of any one discipline. Jacob Proctor, Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, will discuss Rowe's newest work, a site-specific installation created in direct response to the architectural frame of the gallery itself.

Zell Visiting Writers Series

Allan Gurganus, a North Carolina native, is the author of Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All (Sue Kaufman Prize from the American Academy), White People (Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Pen-Faulkner Finalist), Plays Well with Others, and The Practical Heart: Four Novellas (Lambda Literary Award). His stories have won the National Magazine Prize and the O’Henry Award. They are seen in Best American Stories and The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction. His political opinion pieces have frequently appeared in the New York Times and he is a popular commentator on PBS’ News Hour and NPRs All Things Considered. Gurganus has taught literature and fiction writing at Duke University, The Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Stanford University, and Sarah Lawrence College. Fellow writer John Cheever wrote, “I consider Allan Gurganus the most technically gifted and morally responsive writer of his generation.”

This event is cosponsored by the Department of English and the Office of the Provost of the University of Michigan.

Ann Arbor Art Center Workshops

This introductory class begins by examining portraits from the UMMA collections. Then you will learn to create your own expressive portraits as you study the basic techniques of drawing the human head while exploring the line, gesture, value, and mass of the face. (All levels welcome.)

UM Screen Arts and Cultures Projectorhead Series

Markus Nornes, Professor in the Department of Screen Arts and Cultures and Asian Languages and Literature will discuss the film and his ideas about and practice of “abusive subtitling” as it applies to his collaboration with film director Sato Makoto on Memories of Agano.

UM Student Programs

The Ark’s new partnership with the University of Michigan Museum of Art, which began in September, invites student songwriters at the University of Michigan to submit their original music demos in order to compete for a live performance showcase at UMMA and a chance to perform at The Ark.

The program was designed to create opportunities for UM students to have their music heard, learn about promoting music, and experience important aspects of the music business first hand. For more information please visit www.umma.umich.edu or contact Emily Ross at Emily@theark.org.

The Lens of Impressionism Program

Come and create your very own seascape painting inspired by paintings and photography from UMMA’s very special exhibition The Lens of Impressionism: Photography and Painting Along the Normandy Coast, 1850-1874. You’ll explore a variety of painting techniques to create the sea and sky and discover how the horizon line can create perspective to give your seascape the illusion of depth.

UM Students: Bus Trip to Cranbrook Institute of Science

Sunday November 15, depart 11 am

Students may sign up with their friends to take a guided tour of the exhibition Animal Logic: Photography by Richard Barnes at Cranbrook. Space is limited and pre-registration is required. Please register at www.arts.umich.edu.

Guided Tours

The New UMMA
Sunday November 15, 1 pm

The Lens of Impressionism
Sunday, November 15, 2 pm

Film

A documentary about the difficult moral choices people had to make in communist Czechoslovakia, the nonviolent struggle toward freedom that eventually led to the student inspired “Velvet Revolution” of 1989, and the legacy of apathy left behind 20 years later.

This event is cosponsored by the University of Michigan Museum of Art, Center for European Studies-European Union Center, Center for Comparative and International Studies, Center for Russian and East European Studies, International Policy Center, and Weiser Center for Emerging Democracies. Part of the series The Nines: Brinks, Cusps, and Perceptions of Possibility—from 1789 to 2009.

Tuesday Night Lecture Series

Translating Knowledge: Global Perspectives on Museums and Community

“Translating Knowledge” considers strategies for engaging the peoples whose lives and histories are presented in the museum in the complicated processes of interpreting culture. This year-long lecture series, organized by the UM Museum Studies Program brings scholars to the University of Michigan around the country and the world. Each participant will present a lecture that examines the theory and a workshop that explores the practice of their community-engaged scholarship. All Tuesday night lectures are in the UMMA Helmut Stern Auditorium and all Wednesday afternoon workshops are in the UMMA Multipurpose Room.

Guided Tour

Tuesday Night Lecture Series (workshop)

Translating Knowledge: Global Perspectives on Museums and Community
Workshop: November 18, 4 pm

The Wednesday Night Museums Lecture Series

Join us on Wednesday evenings for lectures by Museum professionals from across the country. They will speak on a range of unique topics and issues central to today’s museums. All lectures are free and open to the public and will take place in UMMA’s Helmut Stern Auditorium.

Natural History Museums, Aesthetics, and Conservation November 18, 7:30 pm

Darwin's “descent with modification” combined with Kant's distinction between “beauty” and the “sublime” provide a framework for biologically sublime aesthetics, by which we more fully appreciate organisms and their environments. Natural history museums provide a nexus for integrating research, teaching, and conservation in that broader cultural framework, and thus for addressing the severe environmental challenges we now face. Professor Henry Greene will illustrate these claims with examples from the biology of amphibians and reptiles, with emphasis on exciting new discoveries about their evolutionary relationships and natural history.

Harry Greene taught at the University of California, Berkeley, for two decades, before moving to Cornell University in 1999 as a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology. He has studied the behavioral ecology, evolution, and conservation of predators in North and South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and most recently Brazil and the US-Mexico borderlands. His Snakes: the Evolution of Mystery in Nature won a PEN Literary Award and made the New York Times' list of 100 Most Notable Books.

UM Screen Arts and Cultures Projectorhead Series

A masterful new film from the director of Still Life, 24 City chronicles the dramatic and thunderous fall of a state-owned munitions factory and its conversion into a luxury high-rise apartment complex. Artfully composed, rich in offbeat details, and punctuated with pop songs, 24 City weaves together the stories of three generations of factory workers (some real, some actors—including Joan Chen) into a fascinating oral history of post-revolutionary China and the massive changes transforming the country.

Third Thursdays

UMMA Commons
Thursday, November 19, 9 pm

UMMA is a new site for UM students to show what they’ve got. This exciting performance series falls on the third Thursday evening of each month and features different student performers who work in a variety of media. The series is curated and produced by the UMMA Student Programming and Advisory Board

Evening in the Commons

Two Medicine
Friday, November 20, 7-9pm

Two Medicine is made up of Michigan artists Jessica and Matt McCumons, who create thoroughly compelling original and cover songs inspired by the likes of Brandi Carlisle, Amos Lee, Patty Griffin and Amy Winehouse. The duo produces upbeat and rhythmic folk-rock with country roots. Classically trained and locally bred, Jessica's voice is powerful, emotionally charged and always a crowd pleaser. Matt's guitar seldom leaves his side and he has developed a warm and percussive style. These two could just be the medicine you've been looking for.

Ann Arbor Art Center Workshops

Pinhole cameras have a long history of being used in both science and art. Even with the advanced technology available today, many contemporary artists still opt to use pinhole cameras to create fascinating and often mysterious photographs. Learn to make your very own pinhole camera with simple materials and a little patience!

Curator Talk

Carole McNamara, UMMA Senior Curator of Western Art, will introduce this exhibition, which displays the work of contemporary photographers who revisit 19th-century photographic approaches such as the daguerreotype, the cyanotype, and the tintype. Wrought from silver, gold, mercury, and iron, the resulting images have a strong physicality and presence.